It’s always fun to hear when actors have their own fan theories / hot takes about the lore surrounding comic book films, such as Benedict Cumberbatch’s recent breakdown of who he thinks is really to blame for the dimension-shattering shenanigans in his upcoming film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
As most comic book movie lovers know by now, the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange was set up in the box office mega hit Spider-Man: No Way Home after a botched spell by Cumberbatch’s Strange results in the fabric of spacetime beginning to split apart, causing characters from alternative universes spilling into our dimension. Apparently as a result of this, Strange will face off with an evil version of himself in Multiverse of Madness, among other hijinks.
Many armchair analysts have placed the blame squarely on Strange for having the hubris of dabbling in the taboo spell, despite Benedict Wong’s Wong warning him against doing just that. However, according to Cumberbatch (via Total Film), Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, and his penchant for for not letting the sorcerer concentrate during the casting of the magical act, also deserves recognition for mussing things up pretty bad.
“I know we all love Peter Parker, but can we just rewind to the point that the spell is interrupted something like six times?,” Cumberbatch said, referring to the fact that the attempted spell, intended to make the world forget that Peter is Spider-Man, kept getting interrupted by the web-slinger, who requested that the collective amnesia spare his loved ones, such as Zendaya’s MJ, and Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May.
“I think it’s just too easily written off as: ‘[Strange is] going to have to pay for his arrogance.’ It’s not all arrogance, actually. I think some of it is a very calculated risk. But we’ll see where that takes him [in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness].”
The superhero sequel may be one of our most anticipated comic book movies of the year, along with what turned out to be the excellent DC film, The Batman. As with the Caped Crusader’s noir-infused reboot, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will now be dipping their toes into the horror genre for the first time as well.
The bold genre choice, as well as the highly anticipated comeback of Spider-Man and Evil Dead director Sam Raimi to the director’s chair, excites us for what’s in store — even if Marvel’s introduction of a multiverse plotline has the potential to creatively bankrupt comic book movies in general (see: the Morbius post-credits scenes).
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes to theaters May 6.
Published: Mar 31, 2022 01:00 pm